On Rhetoric 3.1-12

"Rhetorical Style and Delivery"

Commentary

CONTENTS:

• Introduction to Book III

• Delivery (3.1)

• Excellence of Style (3.2)

• Bad Taste in Style  (3.3)

• Characteristics of Good Style  (3.5-3.11)

  • Grammatical Correctness (3.5)

  • Linguistically Propriety  (3.7)

  • Urbanity  (3.10)

I.  Introduction to Book III

• In chapters 1-12 Aristotle discusses lexis (rhetoric style); in chapters 13-19 he discusses taxis (rhetorical arrangement).  

  • As Kennedy points out, for the most part what Aristotle means by lexis is really little more than "word choice" (216)

II.  Delivery  (3.1)

• The Greek term is hypocrisis which literally means acting

• Aristotle describes delivery as the "right management of the voice to express various emotions."   Proper delivery, he says,  involves control over the following:

  • volume of sound:  loud, soft or medium

  • pitch:  high, low or intermediate

  • rhythm:  fast, slow, moderate

• proper delivery is used in both rhetoric and poetry---not to mention music !--- to excite an audience.  In a democratic society such as Athens, Aristotle believes that style is often more important than the facts or arguments in a speech.

• Interestingly he doesn't spend much time at all on delivery in the Rhetoric.  The reason for his neglect of delivery is probably two-fold:  (1) Like Plato, Aristotle undoubtedly believes that ignoble rhetoricians use delivery to excite the base emotions of the masses in a democratic society (i.e., Athens); (2) He views delivery as being akin to acting and believes that it is a natural ability that probably can't be taught (in other words, it is non-artistic).

• One the other hand, he does believe that certain aspects of style can be taught, and for this reason spend much of Book III on this topic.

III.  Excellence of Style (3.2)

• The aim of style, according to Aristotle, is clarity.  Style, he further maintains observes the means between ordinary speech---which is often boring---and poetry---which is too flamboyant.

• But the language used in rhetoric must always come across to the audience natural rather than artificial.  He therefore recommends that the rhetor use unusual/complicated words sparingly.

IV.  Bad Taste in Style  (3.3)

• Bad taste, for Aristotle, is the opposite of excellence in style.  It is cause by inappropriate word choice.  he advises against the use of archaic or foreign words  (these will often come across to the audience as pretentious), excessive use of elaborate descriptive adjectives and the ridiculous use of metaphors and similies.

V.  Characteristic of Good Style  (3.5-3.11)

   1.  Grammatical Correctness  (3.5)

• Aristotle spends much of this sections of the text dealing with the proper use of Greek grammar.  If you are not at all interested in the intricacies of Greek grammar, this section will probably be painfully dull to you  (which is why I ruthlessly edited it in the on-text).

• In a nutshell, he argues that grammatical correctness is produced by five things:

  • Correct use of connectives (“on the one hand” implies “on the other hand”)

  • Use of specific vocabulary (use particular, not general, words)

  • Avoidance of ambiguity (People use ambiguity “when they have nothing to say but are pretending to say something”)

  • Observance of agreement both in gender and number

  • Phrase structure of the sentences must be parsed

• The bottom line is that Aristotle adamantly believes that proper use of grammar is the first principle (arkhe) of rhetorical style.  Use slang or sloppy grammatical constructions, therefore at your own peril.

   2.  Linguistical Propriety  (3.7)

• propriety of language for Aristotle means nothing more than the attunement of expression to content in order to produce harmony between them.  Some suggestions he gives for accomplishing this end are:

  • avoid talking casually/frivolously about weighty subjects (e.g., war, famine, disease etc.).

  • avoid speaking solemnly about trivial subjects.

   3.  Urbanity  (3.10)

• The Greek is asteia (the Latin is urbanitas), which literally means "of the town" (as opposed to the country) and implies elegance, wit and good taste.

• The aim of the urbane rhetor here is to transmit new ideas easily to his audience.  Strange language will do little more than confuse and audience, while ordinary language imparts nothing new to them.  the way to achieve this end, he believes, is though the judicious use of metaphor.  Metaphors properly employed conjure up before the audience the image of what is being described; they help an audience to see something in a new and more interesting way.

Suggestions for Further Reading 

• Cooper, Lane, trans. and intro.  The Rhetoric of Aristotle.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ;  Prentice Hall, 1962. 

• Garver, Eugene.  Aristotle's Rhetoric.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1994.

• Grimaldi, William.  Aristotle's Rhetoric: A Commentary.  2 vols.  New York: Fordham University Press, 1980-1988.

• Kennedy, George A.  Aristotle:  On Rhetoric.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1991.